Chapter X. The Bloody Rock

by Joseph A. Altsheler

　　Seeing that all was lost, the five drew farther away into thewoods. They were not wounded, yet their faces were white despitethe tan. They had never before looked upon so terrible a scene.The Indians, wild with the excitement of a great triumph andthirsting for blood, were running over the field scalping thedead, killing some of the wounded, and saving others for theworst of tortures. Nor were their white allies one whit behindthem. They bore a full part in the merciless war upon theconquered. Timmendiquas, the great Wyandot, was the only one toshow nobility. Several of the wounded he saved from immediatedeath, and he tried to hold back the frenzied swarm of old squawswho rushed forward and began to practice cruelties at which eventhe most veteran warrior might shudder. But Queen Esther urgedthem on, and "Indian" Butler himself and the chiefs were afraidof her.

　　Henry, despite himself, despite all his experience and powers ofself-control, shuddered from head to foot at the cries that camefrom the lost field, and he was sure that the others were doingthe same. The sun was setting, but its dying light, brilliantand intense, tinged the field as if with blood, showing all theyelling horde as the warriors rushed about for scalps, or dancedin triumph, whirling their hideous trophies about their heads.Others were firing at men who were escaping to the far bank ofthe Susquehanna, and others were already seeking the fugitives intheir vain hiding places on the little islet.

　　The five moved farther into the forest, retreating slowly, andsending in a shot now and then to protect the retreat of somefugitive who was seeking the shelter of the woods. The retreathad become a rout and then a massacre. The savages raged up anddown in the greatest killing they had known since Braddock'sdefeat. The lodges of the Iroquois would be full of the scalpsof white men.

　　All the five felt the full horror of the scene, but it made itsdeepest impress, perhaps, upon Paul. He had taken part in borderbattles before, but this was the first great defeat. He was notblind to the valor and good qualities of the Indian and his claimupon the wilderness, but he saw the incredible cruelties that hecould commit, and he felt a horror of those who used him as anally, a horror that he could never dismiss from his mind as longas he lived.

　　"Look!" he exclaimed, "look at that!"

　　A man of seventy and a boy of fourteen were running for theforest. They might have been grandfather and grandson.Undoubtedly they had fought in the Battalion of the Very Old andthe Very Young, and now, when everything else was lost, they wereseeking to save their lives in the friendly shelter of the woods.But they were pursued by two groups of Iroquois, four warriors inone, and three in the other, and the Indians were gaining fast.

　　"I reckon we ought to save them," said Shif'less Sol.

　　"No doubt of it," said Henry. "Paul, you and Sol move off to theright a little, and take the three, while the rest of us willlook out for the four."

　　The little band separated according to the directions, Paul andSol having the lighter task, as the others were to meet the groupof four Indians at closer range. Paul and Sol were behind sometrees, and, turning at an angle, they ran forward to interceptthe three Indians. It would have seemed to anyone who was notaware of the presence of friends in the forest that the old manand the boy would surely be overtaken and be tomahawked, butthree rifles suddenly flashed among the foliage. Two of thewarriors in the group of four fell, and a third uttered a yell ofpain. Paul and Shif'less Sol fired at the same time at the groupof three. One fell before the deadly rifle of Shif'less Sol, butPaul only grazed his man. Nevertheless, the whole pursuitstopped, and the boy and the old man escaped to the forest, andsubsequently to safety at the Moravian towns.

　　Paul, watching the happy effect of the shots, was about to saysomething to Shif'less Sol, when an immense force was hurled uponhim, and he was thrown to the ground. His comrade was served inthe same way, but the shiftless one was uncommonly strong andagile. He managed to writhe half way to his knees, and heshouted in a tremendous voice:

　　"Run, Henry, run! You can't do anything for us now!"

　　Braxton Wyatt struck him fiercely across the mouth. The bloodcame, but the shiftless one merely spat it out, and lookedcuriously at the renegade.

　　"I've often wondered about you, Braxton," he said calmly. " Iused to think that anybody, no matter how bad, had some good inhim, but I reckon you ain't got none."

　　Wyatt did not answer, but rushed forward in search of theothers. But Henry, Silent Tom, and Long Jim had vanished. Apowerful party of warriors had stolen upon Shif'less Sol andPaul, while they were absorbed in the chase of the old man andthe boy, and now they were prisoners, bound securely. BraxtonWyatt came back from the fruitless search for the three, but hisface was full of savage joy as he looked down at the capturedtwo.

　　"We could have killed you just as easily," he said, "but wedidn't want to do that. Our friends here are going to have theirfun with you first."

　　Paul's cheeks whitened a little at the horrible suggestion, butShif'less Sol faced them boldly. Several white men in uniformhad come up, and among them was an elderly one, short and squat,and with a great flame colored handkerchief tied around his bead.

　　"You may burn us alive, or you may do other things jest ez bad tous, all under the English flag," said Shif'less Sol, " but I'mthinkin' that a lot o' people in England will be ashamed uv itwhen they hear the news."

　　"Indian" Butler and his uniformed soldiers turned away, leavingShif'less Sol and Paul in the hands of the renegade and theIroquois. The two prisoners were jerked to their feet and toldto march.

　　"Come on, Paul," said Shif'less Sol. "'Tain't wuth while fur usto resist. But don't you quit hopin', Paul. We've escaped frommany a tight corner, an' mebbe we're goin' to do it ag'in."

　　"Shut up!" said Braxton Wyatt savagely. "If you say another wordI'll gag you in a way that will make you squirm."

　　Shif'less Sol looked him squarely in the eye. Solomon Hyde, whowas not shiftless at all, had a dauntless soul, and he was notafraid now in the face of death preceded by long torture.

　　"I had a dog once, Braxton Wyatt," he said, "an' I reckon he wuzthe meanest, ornierest cur that ever lived. He liked to live ondirt, the dirtier the place he could find the better; he'd rathersteal his food than get it honestly; he wuz sech a coward that hewuz afeard o' a rabbit, but ef your back wuz turned to him he'dnip you in the ankle. But bad ez that dog wuz, Braxton, he wuz agentleman 'longside o' you."

　　Some of the Indians understood English, and Wyatt knew it. Hesnatched a pistol from his belt, and was about to strike Sol withthe butt of it, but a tall figure suddenly appeared before him,and made a commanding gesture. The gesture said plainly: "Donot strike; put that pistol back!" Braxton Wyatt, whose soul wasafraid within him, did not strike, and he put the pistol back.

　　It was Timmendiquas, the great White Lightning of the Wyandots,who with his little detachment had proved that day how mighty theWyandot warriors were, full equals of Thayendanegea's Mohawks,the Keepers of the Western Gate. He was bare to the waist. Oneshoulder was streaked with blood from a slight wound, but hiscountenance was not on fire with passion for torture andslaughter like those of the others.

　　"There is no need to strike prisoners," he said in English."Their fate will be decided later."

　　Paul thought that he caught a look of pity from the eyes of thegreat Wyandot, and Shif'less Sol said:

　　"I'm sorry, Timmendiquas, since I had to be captured, that youdidn't capture me yourself. I'm glad to say that you're a greatwarrior."

　　Wyatt growled under his breath, but he was still afraid to speakout, although he knew that Timmendiquas was merely a distant andcasual ally, and had little authority in that army. Yet he wasoverawed, and so were the Indians with him.

　　"We were merely taking the prisoners to Colonel Butler," he said."That is all."

　　Timmendiquas stared at him, and the renegade's face fell. But heand the Indians went on with the prisoners, and Timmendiquaslooked after them until they were out of sight.

　　"I believe White Lightning was sorry that we'd been captured,"whispered Shif'less Sol.

　　"I think so, too," Paul whispered back.

　　They had no chance for further conversation, as they were drivenrapidly now to that point of the battlefield which lay nearest tothe fort, and here they were thrust into the midst of a gloomycompany, fellow captives, all bound tightly, and many wounded.No help, no treatment of any kind was offered for hurts. TheIndians and renegades stood about and yelled with delight whenthe agony of some man's wound wrung from him a groan. The scenewas hideous in every respect. The setting sun shone blood redover forest, field, and river. Far off burning houses stillsmoked like torches. But the mountain wall in the east, wasgrowing dusky with the coming twilight. From the island, wherethey were massacring the fugitives in their vain hiding places,came the sound of shots and cries, but elsewhere the firing hadceased. All who could escape had done so already, and of theothers, those who were dead were fortunate.

　　The sun sank like a red ball behind the mountains, and darknessswept down over the earth. Fires began to blaze up here andthere, some for terrible purpose. The victorious Iroquois;stripped to the waist and painted in glaring colors, joined in asavage dance that would remain forever photographed on the eye ofPaul Cotter. As they jumped to and fro, hundreds of them, wavingaloft tomahawks and scalping knives, both of which dripped red,they sang their wild chant of war and triumph. White men, too,as savage as they, joined them. Paul shuddered again and againfrom head to foot at this sight of an orgy such as the mass ofmankind escapes, even in dreams.

　　The darkness thickened, the dance grew wilder. It was like acarnival of demons, but it was to be incited to a yet wilderpitch. A singular figure, one of extraordinary ferocity, wassuddenly projected into the midst of the whirling crowd, and achant, shriller and fiercer, rose above all the others. Thefigure was that of Queen Esther, like some monstrous creature outof a dim past, her great tomahawk stained with blood, her eyesbloodshot, and stains upon her shoulders. Paul would havecovered his eyes had his hands not been tied instead, he turnedhis head away. He could not bear to see more. But the horriblechant came to his ears, nevertheless, and it was reinforcedpresently by other sounds still more terrible. Fires sprang upin the forest, and cries came from these fires. The victoriousarmy of "Indian" Butler was beginning to burn the prisonersalive. But at this point we must stop. The details of whathappened around those fires that night are not for the ordinaryreader. It suffices to say that the darkest deed ever done onthe soil of what is now the United States was being enacted.

　　Shif'less Sol himself, iron of body and soul, was shaken. Hecould not close his ears, if he would, to the cries that camefrom the fires, but he shut his eyes to keep out the demon dance.Nevertheless, he opened them again in a moment. The horriblefascination was too great. He saw Queen Esther still shaking hertomahawk, but as he looked she suddenly darted through thecircle, warriors willingly giving way before her, and disappearedin the darkness. The scalp dance went on, but it had lost someof its fire and vigor.

　　Shif'less Sol felt relieved.

　　"She's gone," he whispered to Paul, and the boy, too, then openedhis eyes. The rest of it, the mad whirlings and jumpings of thewarriors, was becoming a blur before him, confused and withoutmeaning.

　　Neither he nor Shif'less Sol knew how long they had been sittingthere on the ground, although it had grown yet darker, whenBraxton Wyatt thrust a violent foot against the shiftless one andcried:

　　"Get up! You're wanted!"

　　A half dozen Seneca warriors were with him, and there was nochance of resistance. The two rose slowly to their feet, andwalked where Braxton Wyatt led. The Senecas came on either side,and close behind them, tomahawks in their hands. Paul, thesensitive, who so often felt the impression of coming events fromthe conditions around him, was sure that they were marching totheir fate. Death he did not fear so greatly, although he didnot want to die, but when a shriek came to him from one of thefires that convulsive shudder shook him again from head to foot.Unconsciously he strained at his bound arms, not for freedom, butthat he might thrust his fingers in his ears and shut out theawful sounds. Shif'less Sol, because he could not use his hands,touched his shoulder gently against Paul's.

　　"Paul," he whispered, "I ain't sure that we're goin' to die,leastways, I still have hope; but ef we do, remember that wedon't have to die but oncet."

　　"I'll remember, Sol," Paul whispered back.

　　"Silence, there!" exclaimed Braxton Wyatt. But the two had saidall they wanted to say, and fortunately their senses weresomewhat dulled. They had passed through so much that they werelike those who are under the influence of opiates. The path wasnow dark, although both torches and fires burned in the distance.Presently they heard that chant with which they had becomefamiliar, the dreadful notes of the hyena woman, and they knewthat they were being taken into her presence, for what purposethey could not tell, although they were sure that it was a bitterone. As they approached, the woman's chant rose to an uncommonpitch of frenzy, and Paul felt the blood slowly chilling withinhim.

　　"Get up there!" exclaimed Braxton Wyatt, and the Senecas gavethem both a push. Other warriors who were standing at the edgeof an open space seized them and threw them forward with muchviolence. When they struggled into a sitting position, they sawQueen Esther standing upon a broad flat rock and whirling in aghastly dance that had in it something Oriental. She still swungthe great war hatchet that seemed always to be in her hand. Herlong black hair flew wildly about her head, and her red dressgleamed in the dusk. Surely no more terrible image ever appearedin the American wilderness! In front of her, lying upon theground, were twenty bound Americans, and back of them wereIroquois in dozens, with a sprinkling of their white allies.

　　What it all meant, what was about to come to pass, nether Paulnor Shif'less Sol could guess, but Queen Esther sang:

　　We have found them, the Yengees Who built their houses in the valley, They came forth to meet us in battle, Our rifles and tomahawks cut them down, As the Yengees lay low the forest. Victory and glory Aieroski gives to his children, The Mighty Six Nations, greatest of men. There will be feasting in the lodges of the Iroquois, And scalps will hang on the high ridge pole, But wolves will roam where the Yengees dwelt And will gnaw the bones of them all, Of the man, the woman, and the child. Victory and glory Aieroski gives to his children, The Mighty Six Nations, greatest of men.Such it sounded to Shif'less Sol, who knew the tongue of theIroquois, and so it went on, verse after verse, and at the end ofeach verse came the refrain, in which the warriors joined:

　　"Victory and glory Aieroski gives to his children. The mighty SixNations, greatest of men."

　　"What under the sun is she about?" whispered Shif'less Sol.

　　"It is a fearful face," was Paul's only reply.

　　Suddenly the woman, without stopping her chant, made a gesture tothe warriors. Two powerful Senecas seized one of the boundprisoners, dragged him to his feet, and held him up before her.She uttered a shout, whirled the great tomahawk about her head,its blade glittering in the moonlight, and struck with all hermight. The skull of the prisoner was cleft to the chin, andwithout a cry he fell at the feet of the woman who had killedhim. Paul uttered a shout of horror, but it was lost in thejoyful yells of the Iroquois, who, at the command of the woman,offered a second victim. Again the tomahawk descended, and againa man fell dead without a sound.

　　Shif'less Sol and Paul wrenched at their thongs, but they couldnot move them. Braxton Wyatt laughed aloud. It was strange tosee how fast one with a bad nature could fall when theopportunities were spread before him. Now he was as cruel as theIndians themselves. Wilder and shriller grew the chant of thesavage queen. She was intoxicated with blood. She saw iteverywhere. Her tomahawk clove a third skull, a fourth, a fifth,a sixth, a seventh, and eighth. As fast as they fell thewarriors at her command brought up new victims for her weapon.Paul shut his eyes, but he knew by the sounds what was passing.Suddenly a stern voice cried:

　　"Hold, woman! Enough of this! Will your tomahawk never besatisfied?"

　　Paul understood it , the meaning, but not the words. He openedhis eyes and saw the great figure of Timmendiquas stridingforward, his hand upraised in protest.

　　The woman turned her fierce gaze upon the young chief."Timmendiquas," she said, "we are the Iroquois, and we are themasters. You are far from your own land, a guest in our lodges,and you cannot tell those who have won the victory how they shalluse it. Stand back!"

　　A loud laugh came from the Iroquois. The fierce old chiefs,Hiokatoo and Sangerachte, and a dozen warriors thrust themselvesbefore Timmendiquas. The woman resumed her chant, and a hundredthroats pealed out with her the chorus:

　　Victory and glory Aieroski gives to his children The mighty SixNations, greatest of men.

　　She gave the signal anew. The ninth victim stood before her, andthen fell, cloven to the chin; then the tenth, and the eleventh,and the twelfth, and the thirteenth, and the fourteenth, and thefifteenth, and the sixteenth-sixteen bound men killed by onewoman in less than fifteen minutes. The four in that group whowere left had all the while been straining fearfully at theirbonds. Now they bad slipped or broken them, and, springing totheir feet, driven on by the mightiest of human impulses, theydashed through the ring of Iroquois and into the forest. Twowere hunted down by the warriors and killed, but the other two,Joseph Elliott and Lebbeus Hammond, escaped and lived to be oldmen, feeling that life could never again hold for them anythingso dreadful as that scene at "The Bloody Rock."

　　A great turmoil and confusion arose as the prisoners fled and theIndians pursued. Paul and Shif'less Sol; full of sympathy andpity for the fugitives and having felt all the time that theirturn, too, would come under that dreadful tomahawk, struggled totheir feet. They did not see a form slip noiselessly behindthem, but a sharp knife descended once, then twice, and the bandsof both fell free.

　　"Run! run!" exclaimed the voice of Timmendiquas, low butpenetrating. "I would save you from this!"

　　Amid the darkness and confusion the act of the great Wyandot wasnot seen by the other Indians and the renegades. Paul flashedhim one look of gratitude, and then he and Shif'less Sol dartedaway, choosing a course that led them from the crowd in pursuitof the other flying fugitives.

　　At such a time they might have secured a long lead without beingnoticed, had it not been for the fierce swarm of old squaws whowere first in cruelty that night. A shrill wild howl arose, andthe pointing fingers of the old women showed to the warriors thetwo in flight. At the same time several of the squaws dartedforward to intercept the fugitives.

　　"I hate to hit a woman," breathed Shif'less Sol to Paul, "but I'mgoin' to do it now."

　　A hideous figure sprang before them. Sol struck her face withhis open hand, and with a shriek she went down. He leaped overher, although she clawed at his feet as he passed, and ran on,with Paul at his side. Shots were now fired at him, but theywent wild, but Paul, casting a look backward out of the corner ofhis eye, saw that a real pursuit, silent and deadly, had begun.Five Mohawk warriors, running swiftly, were only a few hundredyards away. They carried rifle, tomahawk, and knife, and Pauland Shif'less Sol were unarmed. Moreover, they were coming fast,spreading out slightly, and the shiftless one, able even at sucha time to weigh the case coolly, saw that the odds were againstthem. Yet he would not despair. Anything might happen. It wasnight. There was little organization in the army of the Indiansand of their white allies, which was giving itself up to theenjoyment of scalps and torture. Moreover, he and Paul were,animated by the love of life, which is always stronger than thedesire to give death.

　　Their flight led them in a diagonal line toward the mountains.Only once did the pursuers give tongue. Paul tripped over aroot, and a triumphant yell came from the Mohawks. But it merelygave him new life. He recovered himself in an instant and ranfaster. But it was terribly hard work. He could hear Shif'lessSol's sobbing breath by his side, and he was sure that his ownmust have the same sound for his comrade.

　　"At any rate one uv 'em is beat," gasped Shif'less Sol. "Onlyfour are ban-in' on now."

　　The ground rose a little and became rougher. The lights from theIndian fires had sunk almost out of sight behind them, and adense thicket lay before them. Something stirred in the thicket,and the eyes of Shif'less Sol caught a glimpse of a humanshoulder. His heart sank like a plummet in a pool. The Indianswere ahead of them. They would be caught, and would be carriedback to become the victims of the terrible tomahawk.

　　The figure in the bushes rose a little higher, the muzzle of arifle was projected, and flame leaped from the steel tube.

　　But it was neither Shif'less Sol nor Paul who fell. They heard acry behind them, and when Shif'less Sol took a hasty glancebackward he saw one of the Mohawks fall. The three who were lefthesitated and stopped. When a second shot was fired from thebushes and another Mohawk went down, the remaining two fled.

　　Shif'less Sol understood now, and he rushed into the bushes,dragging Paul after him. Henry, Tom, and Long Jim rose up toreceive them.

　　"So you wuz watchin' over us! "exclaimed the shiftless onejoyously. "It wuz you that clipped off the first Mohawk, an' wedidn't even notice the shot."

　　"Thank God, you were here!" exclaimed Paul. "You don't know whatSol and I have seen!"

　　Overwrought, he fell forward, but his comrades caught him.