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Updated: May 5, 2025
Suddenly he turned, and half rising struck with all his strength. The dog-wood fork fairly bounced upon the Indian's head. "Wagh!" gasped Tutelu. He had been knocked forward, so that he fell with his two hands and almost with his face into his fire. Instantly he was up, before the doctor might strike again. He ran howling, with his head bloody. He had no stomach for another blow.
The Indians took the three of them to Wakatomica; painted the oldest man black and made them all run the gauntlet; killed the man who had been painted for death, but let John and the other man reach the posts of the council-house. Then the other man was led away, to another town; he never appeared again, and John Slover was left alone in Wakatomica. He was rather blue when Tutelu had come in.
There was a little stick near at hand. It was a dogwood stick, only eighteen inches long and not thicker than two fingers not much of a weapon. But the doctor was desperate. He picked it up, rolled a coal upon it, held the coal in place with a smaller stick, and walked around behind Tutelu, as if to start another fire. He laid down the coal, and drew long breath. It was now or perhaps never.
He grinned to think that this white man was so simple, and he grinned to think that this white man wished to live with him. "Yes," he said. "You make good cabin? Know how?" "I will build us such a great cabin that the council-house will look small," assured the doctor. "Heap cabin maker, huh!" answered Tutelu, much impressed. "See, to-morrow."
And they journeyed on like friends, except for the whip. But the wool was not yet pulled over Tutelu's eyes. In camp to-night he tied his prisoner; and whenever the doctor stirred, to loosen the knots, Tutelu's gaze glowed upon him, through the darkness. There was no chance to do a thing. "Reach Shawnee town to-morrow when sun is high," Tutelu had announced, before lying down.
After wandering twenty-one days he reached Fort McIntosh on the Ohio below Pittsburgh. What of the cowardly Tutelu? Tutelu, still in great terror, arrived at Wakatomica. He panted in with a big story. He showed his head. It was laid open, four inches long, to the bone! He showed his feet. They were filled with thorns. He said that his prisoner had been a giant, with the strength of a buffalo.
He pretended to feel safe, for he was going "to see his friends." He began to make up to his guard, whose name was Tutelu. For all his surly looks Tutelu proved to be good-natured. He and the doctor proceeded to fool each other. "When we reach the Shawnee towns, you and I will live together in the same cabin, as brothers," the doctor proposed. Tutelu grinned.
The mosquitoes and gnats were very bad; they hovered in clouds, lit upon his naked back and bit him severely. With one hand he poked the fire, with the other he slapped and scratched, while grunting angrily about the pests. "Brother, I will make a smoke behind you," spoke the doctor, who had a desperate idea. "Then we can sit between two smokes and be at peace." "All right," Tutelu grunted.
They bombarded Tutelu with broad jokes, and the best he could do was to go off to get his head dressed. John Slover had been captured. He and James Paull and four others were threading homeward from the battle trail when several Indians had ambushed them; with one volley killed two, then had summoned the rest to surrender. He and young James were the only men with guns.
His prisoner had changed to a demon. The doctor sprang for the rifle. He must kill, or else the alarm would be spread. But he was so excited that in cocking the rifle he broke the lock. Tutelu feared a bullet. As he still ran, howling, he dodged and doubled like a rabbit, until he had disappeared in the timber and his howls soon died away. Now the doctor worked fast.
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