"Ay!" and the memory of it instantly broughtback the recollection of the sacrifice that had won usour freedom. "There were three of us taken at daylighton the river bank, beyond the factory building.De Croix and I escaped through the efforts of one whois still a prisoner, and marked for torture."
Framboise And Torture Chambers
"Nay, another; one I have learned to love so wellthat I now willingly risk even torture for her sake.You are a woman, and have a woman's heart; youexercise some strange power among these savages.I beg you to aid me."
"It will be life itself you venture in such an attempt,"she said softly, "even its loss through torture;yet 'tis a deed that might be done, for the Indians arefairly crazed with blood and liquor, and will pay smallheed to aught save their heathen orgies."
The fierce animal nature within these red fiendswas now uppermost, fanned into hot flame by hoursof diabolical torture of previous victims, in which theyhad exhausted every expedient of cruelty to add to thedying agony of their prey. To this, fiery liquor hadyielded its portion; while the weird incantations oftheir priests had transformed the most sober amongthem into demons of malignity. If ever, earlier in thenight, their chiefs had exercised any control over them,that time was long since past; and now the inflamedwarriors, bursting all restraint, answered only to thewar-drum or made murderous response to the superstitionof their medicine-men.
I watched the startled throng press closely backward,as if awed by her mysterious presence, influencedinsensibly by her terse sentence of command, eachdusky face a reflex of its owner's perplexity. Drunkenas most of them were, crazed with savage blood-lustand hours of remorseless torture of their victims, forthe moment that sweet vision of womanly purity heldthem motionless, as if indeed the figure of the Christshe uplifted before their faces had taught them abhorrenceof their crimes.
"Back!" she cried again, but now in a deeperand fuller voice that sounded like a clear-toned bellabove the uproar. "I tell you I will kill this manwith my own hand before I permit you to put furthertorture upon him!"
There was little danger of exposure while I advancedthrough the shelter of the lodges, for I wasalways under partial cover. But I waited and watchedlong before daring to pass across the wide open spacein the centre of which the fire had been kindled. Thetorture-post yet stood there, black and charred, whilethe ground beneath was littered with dead ashes. Thebodies of three white men, two of them naked andmarked by fire, lay close at hand, just as they had beencarelessly flung aside to make room for new victims;yet I dared not stop to learn who they might have beenin life. The sight of their foul disfigurement only renderedme the more eager to reach the living with amessage of hope.
"You are either dull of comprehension, JohnWayland," she said, a bit pertly, "or else you understandme less than any man I ever knew. If I seembrave and light of heart amidst all this horror, 'tismerely that I may not utterly break down, and becomean object of contempt. I feel, Monsieur, I am notdevoid of heart nor of the finer qualities of womanhood.Prefer to remain here? Holy Mother of Christ!It would be my choice to die out yonder on the prairie,rather than stay here in these Indian lodges. Thereis no peril I would not face joyfully, in an effort toescape from this place of torture and barbarity. I confessthat an hour ago I cared not greatly what myend might be; I had lost heart and hope. But nowyour coming, as of one risen from the dead, hasbrought back my courage."
"Recall you a day twelve years ago on the RiverRaisin?" I asked clearly, feeling confident now thatmy words were no longer idle. "An Indian wascaptured in his canoe by a party of frontiersmen whowere out to revenge a bloody raid along the valley ofthe Maumee. That Indian was a Wyandot and achief. He was bound to a tree beside the river bankand condemned to torture; when the leader of therangers, a man with a gray beard, stood before himrifle in hand, and swore to kill the first white man whoput flint and steel to the wood. Recall you this,Sau-ga-nash?"
"But Burns, old friend!" I persisted heartily, mycourage returned once more, "it was surely enough tostir any man to violence to encounter such a thing inthe dark! What in Heaven's name has happened toleave you with such a poll? What has become of yourhair and beard? Is their loss a part of Indian torture?" 2ff7e9595c
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