Once clear
of them" -
I shook my head, and the Indian too made a gesture of dissent.
"You would only be the first to die."
I leaned against the side of the hut, for my heart beat like a
frightened woman's. "Three days!" I exclaimed. "If we go with all
our speed we shall be in time. When did you learn this thing?"
"While you watched the dance," he answered, "Opechancanough
and I sat within his lodge in the darkness. His heart was moved,
and he talked to me of his own youth in a strange country, south of
the sunset, where he and his people dwelt in stone houses and
worshiped a great and fierce god, giving him blood to drink and
flesh to eat. To that country, too, white men had come in ships.
Then he spoke to me of Powhatan, my father, - of how wise he was
and how great a chief before the English came, and how the
English made him kneel in sign that he held his lands from their
King, and how he hated them; and then he told me that the tribes
had called me 'woman,' 'lover no longer of the warpath and the
scalp dance,' but that he, who had no son, loved me as his son,
knowing my heart to be Indian still; and then I heard what I have
told you."
"How long had this been planned?"
"For many moons. I have been a child, fooled and turned aside
from the trail; not wise enough to see it beneath the flowers,
through the smoke of the peace pipes.
Pages:
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382