THE SETTLERS OF LONG ARROW.
A Canadian Romance in Thirty-one Chapters.
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CHAPTER VI.
The following morning, when Keefe was going out to his work, in the fields, the first person he met was a young Indian, who had been living for some time with the Bradys, sometimes shooting deerI or catching a dish of fish, but generally lounging about in the sunniest spot he could find, and listening to Nelly Brady’s complaints of his laziness in not helping with her “chores,” with a stoical indifference which the most distinguished braves of his tribe could not have exceeded.
“We came to look for you,” he said, “your brother gone down lake with Indian, in canoe.”
“What brother?” asked Keefe. “Do you mean Denis Brady?”
The Indian nodded.
“Where is he gone?” inquired Keefe.
“Got nothing for Woodpecker?” asked the Indian, cunningly.
“Tell me what you’ve got to say first,” said Keefe. “Why did you come to look for me? Did Denis send any message for me?”
“What will the young chief give me, if I tell?” persisted Woodpecker.
“Give you, if you don’t tell, a good thrashing,” said Keefe, angrily.
“Well, they’re Huron Indians; got a camp near Sandusky; Denis gone there with them; never come back here no more: sent you him;” and the young savage held up a tiny wrapping of birch bark, curiously secured by a fishing line.
Keefe eagerly held out his hand, but Woodpecker drew hack.
“Give Woodpecker yorkers to get some tobacco first,” he said.
Keefe gave him a York shilling, and he surrendered the parcel with a grim smile. In a second Keefe’s knife cut the knots which fastened it, and disclosed the braid of Coral’s hair, which Denis had so long worn round his arm.
“Nothing in him but squsw’s hair,” said Wood pecker, who had been watching the opening of the parcel.
“Are there any of those Indians still here?” he asked, turning hastily round.
“Yes, some stayed behind to mend their canoe, —I saw them working at it on the beach down there; but I guess they’ll be off in a hour or two.”
Going to the lake shore, Keefe found the Indians were at work on their canoe. Denis, they said, had gone off with the rest of their party, and they were about to follow immediately, expecting to rejoin their companions at a place which they were to reach that night. Certain that Denis had some wild plan in his head, Keefe determined to