Prisoners of Chance Part 25

"Prisoners, can any among you interpret my speech?"

I caught my breath in glad surprise, struggling to my feet, and making haste to answer.

"If you speak slowly," I said, "I shall be able to understand."

"'Tis well, as it is a tongue unknown to these Indians," her eyes lighting up with cunning. "Then, Senor, mark with care what I say, and, if the meaning of any escape your ears, bid me speak again, so no mistake be made."

"It will give me great pleasure, O Queen."

"I am the Daughter of the Sun," she interposed proudly, as if correcting my mode of address. "These are my children, given unto me by the great Sun-G.o.d. For what purpose have you of white skin dared invade the land of the Sun?"

"We knew nothing of your presence here, merely seeking a pa.s.sage through these mountains northward."

"But you killed the warriors of our nation; you have stricken the people of the Sun."

"True, Daughter of the Sun; yet it was done only in self-defence. When attacked we struck hard blows."

Her eyes glowed angrily, her face becoming cruelly hard.

"None of white blood may set foot in this valley and live. It is the land of the Sun," she said haughtily. "None have ever before ventured to do so, and found safe way back to their own. Are you French?"

[Ill.u.s.tration: "I am the Daughter of the Sun. These are my children, given unto me by the great Sun-G.o.d. . . . None of white blood may set foot in this valley and live."]

"Not all,--the lady and yonder cavalier are of French blood, I am a hunter of the Ohio country, while he who crouches beyond also calls himself American."

"I know nothing of your Ohio, nor what may be an American," she replied with an impatient stamp of the foot, "but it is bad any among you should prove French. What does the woman do here?"

In a few brief sentences I told our story, marking as I spoke that she followed my words with care. As I concluded she merely gazed more closely into Madame's upturned face, speaking as though communing with herself.

"She has the appearance of a fair woman; we need no such here." She raised her voice slightly, addressing me in cold reserve.

"Your story sounds well. True or false, it makes small odds. We attacked your party, believing you French, whom the children of the Sun have good reason to hate. You have cost us the lives of many warriors, and the Sun calls for vengeance. Already has the tribe solemnly voted your death by fire. Now mark me closely. 'Tis not often I interfere in such affairs as this, nor do I now for any higher object than my own gratification. The Daughter of the Sun is no angel, nor ambitious to become one. I have looked on unmoved at the torture of the stake more than once, so 'tis no weak sentimentality that leads me to try to avert your fate. Nor am I sure I can, whatever my motive be. I possess no power to overturn the united vote of these warriors--they are all children of the Sun. I can think of but one method by which I can even hope to encompa.s.s your escape from immediate torture. If by some subterfuge I can delay action until day-dawn, I may be able to control these savages. The children of the Sun do not light their fires in the presence of their Father. There is but one possible way to that end,--does yonder red-headed man comprehend the Spanish tongue?"

"He does not."

"That is bad," her brows contracting. "Still he must be used, as no other among you will answer my purpose. Bid him advance to my side on the platform; bid him pretend to hold converse with me, and, above all else, have him attend my every gesture and obey. Will he do your bidding?"

"I know not," I replied honestly. "He is of a bull-headed breed, yet I may be able to drive into him a moment of sense."

"Do your part thoroughly, nor be too long about it. The chiefs grow restless at our talk, and may yet take affairs into their own hands."

I turned doubtfully toward the Puritan, who was glaring up at the woman from beneath his s.h.a.ggy brows, much as he might have looked upon some wild animal seen for the first time. I presume the fiery red drapery caused him to deem her that veritable scarlet woman about whom he prated so much. He appeared far from being a promising subject for my overtures, especially as his great head must have ached still from contact with the club, which had alone beaten him into sullen silence.

Yet she commanding the attempt was so desperately in earnest that I determined to do my part.

"Watch carefully my words," I said sternly in English, "and bear in mind the preservation of all our lives depends on the part you play.

The woman chief has made choice of you to help in winning mercy from these savages. I know not why you are the one thus chosen, yet I suspect that fiery crop of hair may have something to do with the honor. The main point is, are you in a humor to do her bidding?"

"Nay!" he replied, gazing at me stubbornly.

"You refuse to a.s.sist in saving your own life, and the lives of your comrades?"

"I touch not the accursed abominations of this place," he answered, hoa.r.s.e with anger, "nor will I have aught to do with yonder shameless creature."

"Sirrah!" I cried, thoroughly aroused by his mulishness, "do you deliberately choose to sacrifice the life of this lady to your bull-headed fanaticism? Do you refuse to unbend your miserable Connecticut sectarianism, your Puritan cant, although by so doing you might keep your comrades from the horrors of the stake? If this is what you mean, I denounce you as unworthy to be called a man, and I name your loud protestations of religion no more than a hissing and a byword before the unG.o.dly you profess to despise. You are no better than a Pharisee, full of loud-mouthed prayers and vain conceit of righteousness, a false prophet, haggling over formalism when the slightest sacrifice of what you hold the letter of the law would result in the salvation of human life. You call yourself a Christian, a follower of that Nazarene who died for sinners on the cross, deeming yourself better than those who cling to other creed. You sneer at that rosary in Madame's fingers, yet do you suppose it possible she would not endeavor to pluck your life from the jaws of death if it lay in her power? Ay! and never waste speech about abominations in the path."

"The spirit is of greater value than the body," he persisted doggedly.

"Yea, 'tis better the flesh perish miserably in the flame than surrender up the soul unto the devil."

"That is no issue here; you seek to deceive yourself by false words. I denounce you openly as a false follower, for if I read rightly the language of Holy Writ, it was He whom you so delight to term Master who gave his life freely for His friends. But you--you are all words, a charnel-house of dead men's bones."

Had he been free I might have rued my hasty words, for his eyes were hot with anger, and he strained fiercely at his bonds in effort to break free. Yet I felt safe enough beyond the sweep of his great arm, rejoicing that my tongue was sharp enough to penetrate so thick a hide, and make the man squirm beneath his outer vestment of piety.

"You speak falsely," he bellowed, nearly beside himself. "Satan puts those foul words upon your lips tempting me to do evil."

"Nay; the words are true," I went on, determined to drive him by taunts. "They are neither foul nor false, and right glad I am to discover your real character even at this eleventh hour. I make no loud boasting of my religion, dinning it into the ears of all I meet as if I were the only righteous man on earth, but I do thank G.o.d from the depths of my heart I have never yet basely deserted a friend in time of trouble. I did consider you a good comrade, but I know now you are nothing but a whited sepulchre, a miserable hypocrite, a Judas betraying his master with a kiss. Pah! go your way, you are unclean; nor ever hope again for word of fellowship from lips of honest men. I shall die having performed my duty to the extent of my knowledge, but you as a dog, a traitor to your comrades, the betrayer of a woman in time of peril."

"'Tis false, I say; I would yield life gladly to aid her."

"Zounds! that sounds good from such lips. Why, you have just refused much less."

"Yonder is an emissary of the Evil One."

"Keep your cowardly excuses to yourself. Whatever the woman may be, she offers us a chance for our lives, provided only you will perform her will in sundry matters."

He hesitated, his uncertain eyes shifting from her face to mine.

"What does this scarlet priestess of Baal require that I do?" he questioned sullenly.

"Good lack, 'tis little enough even to satisfy your conscience. Merely that you stand beside her on the platform, pretending converse, marking carefully her every signal, and obeying it."

"I play no idolatrous mummery with her."

"Then may the devil fly away with you," I retorted, so enraged by this time I could scarcely refrain from grappling him with my hands. "I go to tell Madame of the fool you are."

He gave vent to a deep groan, rolling his eyes as was his habit in time of trial, yet never removing his gaze from that red figure, standing motionless as a statue, impatiently awaiting his decision.

"In the name of the holy prophets of Israel!" he snorted desperately at last. "'T is, indeed, a grievous trial like unto that which befell Daniel in the den of the lions. If I go upon yonder sinful platform before these hosts of Satan, it will be only as led by the Almighty, and that I may wrestle mightily in prayer for the redemption of the heathen."

"I care not, man, so you go. Pray loud as you please, yet give heed to the signals of the woman if you value your own life or ours."

Odds! it was a picture to see the fellow start on his unwelcome mission, slouching through the ranks of the surprised savages with as hangdog a look on his mournful countenance as though he mounted the gallows. It was with faint hope as to the result that I watched him lumber onto the platform, doubting not he would perform some crazy trick to offset any good he might endeavor. I could scarce restrain a smile as the two actors faced each other, marking the look of undisguised horror on his leathern face, and how he shrank back as her hand extended to touch him. The wild, discordant cries of the grouped savages ceased in wonderment at this unantic.i.p.ated scene; even the perpetual incantations of the priests died away, every eye gazing curiously on the strange spectacle. The Puritan had appropriated one of De Noyan's hats, broad of brim, and so ample of crown the high peaked head of the worthy sectary was almost lost within its capacious interior. No sooner, however, did he attain her side than the woman grasped it in her white fingers, flinging it disdainfully upon the floor, and, like a flash of unexpected color in the dancing light of the fire, there blazed forth before us his flaming covering with a brilliancy which startled even me. Saint Andrew! it was a glow to make the eyes blink.

The sudden effect of this disclosure upon the thronging warriors was beyond words of mine. There followed a hush so painful in intensity I could distinguish the quick throbbing of my own heart. I saw the woman point at the fellow, giving eager utterance to a single word, her eyes sweeping the faces below. Then came an irregular rush forward, inarticulate cries pierced the air, war weapons were dashed clanging upon the earthen floor, while numerous torches, grasped from off the sacred altar, were waved aloft by excited hands, all serving to form as demoniacal a scene as was ever witnessed this side of h.e.l.l.

The full truth flashed across my mind--our comrade had in that moment been changed from a helpless, beaten prisoner into an object of superst.i.tious worship. By the magic of a word, the alchemy of a thought, he had become to these superst.i.tious savages a mysterious visitant from the Sun, and for once, at least, he might fervently bless Nature, who had bestowed upon him so rich a coloring of hair. Whether or not the fellow comprehended the meaning of that uproar, of those wildly dancing figures in his front, I could never determine; but, before the woman could in any way interfere, the sectary plumped down upon his knees, and, with head bent so low that every separate hair caught the reflection of the ruddy flames, began pouring forth a pet.i.tion in st.u.r.dy English, and with a volume of voice that shook the whole interior. It was not such a bad play, I take it, although he was desperately in earnest. Very plainly he compared his worshipping auditory to certain scriptural characters, in a way that would not have proven flattering to them could they have interpreted his language.

"Oh, Lord G.o.d!" he roared, rolling his eyes upward and interjecting many a deep groan after each sentence. "Infinite Jehovah, for some just reason of Thy own, Thou hast seen fit to lead Thy most humble servant into this den of iniquity. Thou hast placed me in the fiery furnace of tribulation, it may be in the test of that faith which was delivered unto the saints, yet will I not bow down in the tents of the idolaters, nor profane Thy Holy Name by the worship of their false G.o.ds. Here in the midst of the ravening lions I uplift my eyes unto Jerusalem, and my lips unto the throne of grace, beseeching Thee to give unto me the salvation of these heathen, even as brands plucked from the burning. Quench the fire on this altar of Baal, O Lord, by the outpouring of Thy Spirit, and give unto this people a manifestation of Thy mighty power, redeeming them from their manifold sins. Yea, Lord, give ear unto the words of my pet.i.tion, and as of old times thou didst send a message of fire unto Thy prophet Elijah, so come down even now to visit these unbelieving and mocking hearts with the terror of Thy just wrath. Make bare Thy arm of infinite power that this abomination of heathendom may be purged of its vain idolatry, and that Thy Israel may triumph over the hosts of the sinful. Even as Thou didst scatter the forces of the Egyptians in the waters of the Red Sea, even so, O Lord, visit now Thy wrath upon those who mock Thee and degrade Thy image. Save us from the snare of this scarlet woman, this proud harlot of Babylon, and forgive Thy servant for thus seeming to obey her will. Thou knowest, O Lord, that it is only that I may the better serve Thee, and thus overcome the wiles of the Wicked One. Give unto me in this hour the strength of Samson that I may overturn the pillars of this temple of abominations, even though we all perish in its destruction. Yea, visit us with power and righteousness, and scatter Thy enemies over the face of the earth. O Lord! I am as nothing, a mere worm of the dust: smite me if Thou wilt, yet I but wrestle with Thee in prayer that through me the heathen may be brought low, and led to see the error of their way."