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"Known what better?" demanded Odalie, resenting reprimand in a very un-squawlike fashion. "Marcher in shoes! Mong Dew! Ces souliers couldn't have been made pour marcher in!" he retorted, with a funny grimace. The facial contortion seemed suddenly to anger Willinawaugh, who had chanced to observe them; to suggest recollections that he resented, and the reminder shared in his disfavor.
It threw the two boats apart for a space, prolonging Hamish's suspense, yet serving as a reprieve to the ordeal of his examination as to his proficiency in the French language by the erudite Cherokee. The canoe rocked in the swirls, and although Willinawaugh sat still in stately impassiveness, Odalie and Fifine clung to the gunwale.
Willinawaugh, with an Indian from the other crew to paddle the craft, had eluded Captain Stuart, who had reached the water's edge too late for a word with him, and who stood upon the bank, an effective martial figure, and blandly waved his hand in farewell, with a jovial outcry, "Canawlla!
"I walked all the way here from New River," cried Odalie, "and not by the direct route, either not by the old 'Warrior's Path. We came by way of the setting sun, as Willinawaugh has it." "You can't work," Mrs. Halsing's eyes narrowed as she measured the figure, slight and delicate despite its erect alertness. "I can spin two hanks of yarn a day, six cuts to the hank," boasted Odalie.
There were milder countenances now in the circle, and Stuart's attention was presently concentrated upon an eager controversy between Atta-Kulla-Kulla and Willinawaugh that was curiously enough, at this moment of gravest council, sitting in judgment on the disposal of a human life, a matter of chaffer, of bargain and sale.
Tafia in judiciously small quantities, it is true was served to the tribesmen about the parade, but the head-men, Atta-Kulla-Kulla, Willinawaugh, Rayetaeh, Otacite, more than all, Oconostota, the king of the Cherokee nation, were escorted to the great hall of the officers' quarters, the latter on the arm of Captain Stuart himself; the Indian king, being a trifle lame of one leg, he was known among the soldiers as "Old Hop," was evidently pleased by the exceptional attention and made the most of his infirmity, leaning heavily on the officer's arm.
"Of course Captain Stuart couldn't have known that his valued friend, the great chief, Willinawaugh, was to be passing with the English party, but, sure, he would take it mighty ill if the chief did not stop over, too, and lie at the fort to-night, an' he so seldom up from Toquoe! Captain Demeré, too, will expect the great chief. My word on't, he will."
And Stuart became aware, with a start that almost dislocated his pinioned arms, that it was the transfer of his custody, the purchase of himself, over which they were bargaining. Again Willinawaugh shook his head. Was he some slight thing, seequa, cheefto, an opossum, a rabbit? For months, he said, he had besieged that man in his great stronghold of Fort Loudon.
Willinawaugh sat at his ease on his horse, which was somewhat jaded by long and continuous marches, or perhaps his patience would not have sufficed to restrain him to the pace of the pioneers and his own unmounted followers. A grave spirit of amity still pervaded the party, but there was little talk.
Willinawaugh paused, and all his braves muttered in applause "Ugh! Ugh!" To the warlike Cherokee the event of a battle was not paramount. Victory or defeat they realized was often the result of fortuitous circumstance. Courage was their passion.
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