“But how cruel is this border life!”
“Nature itself is brutal.”
“Yes, I know, and we have elected to spend our lives here in the midst of this ceaseless strife, to fare poorly, to have no pleasure, never to feel the comfort of a woman’s smiles, nor the joy of a child’s caress, all because out in the woods are ten or twenty or a hundred savages we may convert.”
“That is why, and it is enough. It is hard to give up the women you love to a black-souled renegade, but that is not for my thought. What kills me is the horror for her—for her.”
“I, too, suffer with that thought; more than that, I am morbid and depressed. I feel as if some calamity awaited us here. I have never been superstitious, nor have I had presentiments, but of late there are strange fears in my mind.”
At this juncture Mr. Wells and Heckewelder came out of the adjoining cabin.
“I had word from a trustworthy runner today. Girty and his captives have not been seen in the Delaware towns,” said Heckewelder.
“It is most unlikely that he will take them to the towns,” replied Edwards. “What do you make of his capturing Jim?”
“For Pipe, perhaps. The Delaware Wolf is snapping his teeth. Pipe is particularly opposed to Christianity, and—what’s that?”
A low whistle from the bushes near the creek bank attracted the attention of all. The younger men got up to investigate, but Heckewelder detained them.
“Wait,” he added. “There is no telling what that signal may mean.”
They waited with breathless interest. Presently the whistle was repeated, and an instant later the tall figure of a man stepped from behind a thicket. He was a white man, but not recognizable at that distance, even if a friend. The stranger waved his hand as if asking them to be cautious, and come to him.
They went toward the thicket, and when within a few paces of the man Mr. Wells exclaimed:
“It’s the man who guided my party to the village. It is Wetzel!”
The other missionaries had never seen the hunter though, of course, they were familiar with his name, and looked at him with great curiosity. The hunter’s buckskin garments were wet, torn, and covered with burrs. Dark spots, evidently blood stains, showed on his hunting-shirt.
“Wetzel?” interrogated Heckewelder.
The hunter nodded, and took a step behind the bush. Bending over he lifted something from the ground. It was a girl. It was Nell! She was very white—but alive. A faint, glad smile lighted up her features.
Not a word was spoken. With an expression of tender compassion Mr. Wells received her into his arms. The four missionaries turned fearful, questioning eyes upon the hunter, but they could not speak.
“She’s well, an’ unharmed,” said Wetzel, reading their thoughts, “only worn out. I’ve carried her these ten miles.”
“God bless you, Wetzel!” exclaimed the old missionary. “Nellie, Nellie, can you speak?”
“Uncle dear—I’m—all right,” came the faint answer.
“Kate? What—of her?” whispered George Young with lips as dry as corn husks.
“I did my best,” said the hunter with a simple dignity. Nothing but the agonized appeal in the young man’s eyes could have made Wetzel speak of his achievement.
“Tell us,” broke in Heckewelder, seeing that fear had stricken George dumb.
“We trailed ’em an’ got away with the golden-haired lass. The last I saw of Joe he was braced up agin a rock fightin’ like a wildcat. I tried to cut Jim loose as I was goin’ by. I s’pect the wust fer the brothers an’ the other lass.”
“Can we do nothing?” asked Mr. Wells.
“Nothin’!”
“Wetzel, has the capturing of James Downs any significance to you?” inquired Heckewelder.
“I reckon so.”
“What?”
“Pipe an’ his white-redskin allies are agin Christianity.”
“Do you think we are in danger?”
“I reckon so.”
“What do you advise?”
“Pack up a few of your traps, take the lass, an’ come with me. I’ll see you back in Fort Henry.”
Heckewelder nervously walked up to the tree and back again. Young and Edwards looked blankly at one another. They both remembered Edward’s presentiment. Mr. Wells uttered an angry exclamation.
“You ask us to fail in our duty? No, never! To go back to the white settlements and acknowledge we were afraid to continue teaching the Gospel to the Indians! You can not understand Christianity if you advise that. You have no religion. You are a killer of Indians.”
A shadow that might have been one of pain flitted over the hunter’s face.
“No, I ain’t a Christian, an’ I am a killer of Injuns,” said Wetzel, and his deep voice had a strange tremor. “I don’t know nothin’ much ’cept the woods an’ fields, an’ if there’s a God fer me He’s out thar under the trees an’ grass. Mr. Wells, you’re the first man as ever called me a coward, an’ I overlook it because of your callin’. I advise you to go back to Fort Henry, because if you don’t go now the chances are aginst your ever goin’. Christianity or no Christianity, such men as you hev no bisness in these woods.”
“I thank you for your advice, and bless you for your rescue of this child; but I can not leave my work, nor can I understand why all this good work we have done should be called useless. We have converted Indians, saved their souls. Is that not being of some use, of some good here?”
“It’s accordin’ to how you look at it. Now I know the bark of an oak is different accordin’ to the side we see from. I’ll allow, hatin’ Injuns as I do, is no reason you oughtn’t to try an’ convert ’em. But you’re bringin’ on a war. These Injuns won’t allow this Village of Peace here with its big fields of corn, an’ shops an’ workin’ redskins. It’s agin their nature. You’re only sacrificin’ your Christian Injuns.”
“What do you mean?” asked Mr. Wells, startled by Wetzel’s words.
“Enough. I’m ready to guide you to Fort Henry.”
“I’ll never go.”
Wetzel looked at the other men. No one would have doubted him. No one could have failed to see he knew that some terrible anger hovered over the Village of Peace.
“I believe you, Wetzel, but I can not go,” said Heckewelder, with white face.
“I will stay,” said George, steadily.
“And I,” said Dave.
Wetzel nodded, and turned to depart when George grasped his arm. The young missionary’s face was drawn and haggard; he fixed an intense gaze upon the hunter.
“Wetzel, listen;” his voice was low and shaken with deep feeling. “I am a teacher of God’s word, and I am as earnest in that purpose as you are in your life-work. I shall die here; I shall fill an unmarked grave; but I shall have done the best I could. This is the life destiny has marked out for me, and I will live it as best I may; but in this moment, preacher as I am, I would give all I have or hope to have, all the little good I may have done, all my life, to be such a man as you. For I would avenge the woman I loved. To torture, to kill Girty! I am only a poor, weak fellow who would be lost a mile from this village, and if not, would fall