“Nay, ’twill heal if it be given time, but my arm is of no use to me.”
“You say the English had many killed, Memecho? And what happened at last?”
“They went back, still fighting, to the garrison, the Quaboags pursuing. Now they are beset by my people in great number and unless help come must perish.”
“Is there help near, Memecho?”
“’Tis said that Major Willard has half a hundred soldiers under him at Lancaster, on the Nashua, thirty miles away. Yet unless word be taken to him what means it? One who sought to go at Captain Wheeler’s command was killed ere he had ridden an arrow’s flight. And now, since the village is surrounded, none may pass out.”
“Had I but my freedom!” groaned David.
“Or I mine,” said the Indian.
“How happens it that you talk my language so well, Memecho?” asked the boy, after a moment’s silence.
“I am of the Praying Village at Chabanakongkomun, a Christian like yourself, David. I have learned to speak your language and to read and write it, though the writing is hard for me. I teach my brothers, or so
