The Argosy, April 1912 — page 64: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

50 THE so little into perplexity. Powhatan con- tinued: “Or did your manitou magic cause the great stone to break loose from its fasten- ings and fall among us? Was it further proof of your powers? If so, it is the most wondrous test of all, for that stone has abode there with its three fellows, on the thatch corners ever since my dead father reared this house.” His manner of contemptuous, lofty re- proach would have utterly convinced me that a common accident and tight-strung nerves had betrayed us into our exhibition of dread, had it not been for the memory of the princess’s unspoken warning as she had looked at me from behind the deerskin curtain. As for Smith, he was wholly convinced. Back went his great sword, clanging into its scabbard, and his knife into his belt. “T .crave your pardon,” he said, sheep- ishly enough, extending his hand to the king, who gravely accepted it. The two resumed their seats, but I called across in English to Smith: “Here! Over here as fast as you can move. Together we may hold this shel- tered position for a minute or two, before they destroy us.” “Sit down,” retorted Smith, in wrathful scorn. “Will you shame us both? They will deem you a coward. Sheathe your sword and sit down. *Iwas but an acci- dent. The stone slipped its socket and fell through the roof. That is all.” “A stone as large as that,” I answered, “would be visible from the plain below. Powhatan has just said there were four such on the roof; one at each corner. I saw none as we approached.” “You did not notice,” rejoined Smith. “He would not be fool enough to lie about a thing we could disprove the moment we leave this house and look up at the roof.” “Smith,” I cried, “he does not mean that we shall. leave this house—alive.” “Will not your follower conquer his fear so far as to lay aside his weapon and partake of the new food that I have or- dered brought to him?” queried Powhatan of the captain, looking with scornful amuse- ment at my unchanged attitude of watch- ful defense as he spoke. “No,” I called back before Smith could reply. “If I must die I will die like a man, not like a trapped hare.” Smith reddened with mortification at my ‘apparently ARGOSY. timorous conduct, but turned again to Powhatan, and took up the thread of a boastful tale he had been telling when the mishap occurred. My ring of enemies had stepped back and were no longer paying heed to me. Yet I noticed they did not return to their for- mer positions in the room. They still re- mained lounging, between me and Smith. Nor could I see the princess’s face now at the curtain. She had evidently done what little she could to save us and had re- tired ere the final tragedy should be en- acted. Sword in hand, I maintained my watch- ful guard, for I knew we were about as safe as though we were in a panther’s lair. And I waited each moment for the storm to break. | “Yes,” Smith was declaiming in his broken dialect, to the politely interested king. “Three champions were they of the Turkish Soldan, and they challenged every cavalier of Sigismond’s army to single com- bat. One by one did I meet these heathen Turks, and one by one did I leave them dead on the -field, whereat our whole army—”’ He got no further. Of a sudden a score of hands seized him. Nimble fingers -wrenched away his unheeded weapons from his belt, and tripped from behind by some cunning wrestler, Captain John Smith plunged headlong to earth. In a trice he was tied and helpless. CHAPTER XX. UNDER THE BREATH OF DEATH. You will ask why I did not spring to my captured leader’s aid, and perform prodigies of useless, suicidal valor in an at- tempt to rescue him. ; I did not do it, for two reasons. First, the whole attack, capture and binding did not occupy three seconds of time. Second, because, at the instant the secret signal for the onset was given by Powhatan, no less than a dozen armed savages formed a hu- man wall in front of me; their brandished weapons menacing my head. I could not move forward. To throw myself upon the warriors who confronted me would mean that they would at once close in upon all sides of me, and that I should have a half-dozen or more hatchets sunk into my back ere I could strike a blow. cComicloool. (CO