With the changing season came also a change over the hapless Indian maiden, Sansuta.
Her weakness, which had been continually increasing, was now so great that she could no longer stray with Alice to their favourite haunts.
The poor girl"s form had wasted away, and her features become shrunken.
Her dark, l.u.s.trous eyes alone seemed to retain their vitality.
All her former violence had disappeared, and a change had also made itself manifest in her mental condition.
Now and then she had lucid moments of thought, during which she would shed torrents of tears on Alice"s shoulder, only with the return of her malady would she appear happy and at peace.
Towards sunset of a lovely day the two girls sat together at the door of Sansuta"s dwelling.
"See!" said the Indian girl, "the flowers are closing, the birds have gone into the deep forest. I have been expecting some one, but he has not come yet. Do you know who it is?"
"No, I do not."
""Tis Warren. Why do you start and tremble? He will not hurt you. Who was it you thought I meant?"
"I cannot tell, dear Sansuta."
"No one but him--I think of him always, although," she added lowering her voice to a whisper, "I dare not call his name. I"m afraid to do that. I"m afraid of my brother Nelatu and my cousin Wacora. Why does the sun look so fiery? It is the colour of blood--blood--blood! That red colour, is it on _your_ hands, too? Ah, no! _You_ are no murderer!"
"Hush, Sansuta! you are excited."
"Ah, yonder sun! Do you know that I feel as if it were the last time I should ever see it set. See, there are dark lines across the sky-- ribbed with bands of black clouds. It is the last day--the last day--"
"I see nothing, only the approach of night."
"But you hear something. Don"t you hear the spirits singing their death march over Oluski"s grave? He was my father--I hear it. It is a summons. It is for me. I must go."
"Go? Where?"
"Far away. No; it is of no use clasping me to your heart. It is not Sansuta"s body that will leave you--it is her spirit. In the happy hunting grounds I shall meet with him--"
A few moments after she became tranquil; but the lucid interval succeeded, and hot tears coursed down her hollow cheeks.
Again her mind wandered, and for two or three hours, refusing to enter the house, she sate muttering to herself the same fancies.
Alice could but sit beside her and listen. Now and then she sought to soothe her, but in vain.
By and bye Sansuta"s voice grew faint. She seemed to lean heavier on the arm of her pale-faced friend, and the l.u.s.tre of her eye gradually became dimmer.
The change was alarming, and Alice would have risen and called for help, but an imploring glance from Sansuta prevented her.
"Don"t leave me," she murmured gently.
Her voice was changed; she had recovered reason, and her companion perceived it.
"Do not leave me. I shall not detain you long. I know you now--have known you it seems for years. I know all, for there is peace in my heart towards all, even to those who took his life. Forgiveness has come back with reason, and my last prayers shall be that they who made Sansuta unhappy may be forgiven!"
She spoke in so low a voice that it was with difficulty her companion could hear what she said.
"Kiss me, Alice Rody! Speak to me! Let me hear you say that Sansuta was your friend!"
"Was--_is_ my friend!"
"No--let me say _was_, for I am about to leave you. The time is come; I am ready! My last prayer is "Pity and forgiveness! Pity and--""
By the gentle motion of her lips she appeared to be praying.
That motion ceased, and with it her unhappy life!
Alice still continued to hold her in her arms long after her soul had pa.s.sed into Eternity!
CHAPTER THIRTY SIX.
THE BURNT SHANTY.
The ghost of Crookleg did not in any way disturb Cris Carrol, either sleeping or awake.
The worthy backwoodsman believed that he had done a highly meritorious action in for ever disposing of that malevolent individual.
"The infernal black skunk, to be cuttin" his capers over the bodies of brave men who had laid down their lives in a war he, and sich as he, brought about! It were no more nor an act of justice to send him to everlastin" perdition, and, if I never done a more valuable thing to society than stickin" three inches of cold steel atween his two shoulder-blades, I think I desarves the thanks of the hul community."
This consolation Cris indulged in whenever he thought of that terrible episode upon Tampa hill.
He had returned a few days after the ma.s.sacre and had found the dead decently buried.
Wacora had commanded it to be done.
The charred ruins of Rody"s house, however, recalled the memory of that eventful night.
For some time after his last visit to Tampa Bay, Cris Carrol had not been seen.
Neither the pale-faces nor the redskins had been able to discover his whereabouts.
The truth is, that the backwoodsman was glad to get away from scenes where so much violence had been done to his feelings.
As he had said, he _couldn"t_ fight against the Indians, and he _wouldn"t_ take up arms against the whites.
"It ain"t in human nature to shoot and stab one"s own sort, even when they"re in the wrong, unless they"d done somethin" agin oneself; an"
that they hain"t done as regards me. I"ll be eternally dog-goned if I think the red-skins are to blame for rising agin oppression and tyranny, which is what old Rody did to them, to say nothin" agin him now he"s dead, but to speak the truth, and that"s bad enough for him. No, they war not to blame for what they did, arter his conduct to them--the old cuss; who, bad as he war, had one redeemin" feature in his karactur, and that war his angeliferous darter. Where kin she have gone a hidin"?
Thet puzzles this chile, it do."
Cris was unaware of Alice"s capture and imprisonment.
As suddenly as he had taken his departure from Tampa, Cris returned to the same neighbourhood. He expected the war to be transferred to a more distant point, and wished still to keep out of the way.